In recent years, Information Technology (IT) systems have been developed so as to be open and compliant with multi vendors and have thus become large-scale and more complicated, being combined with an increasing number of servers and an expansion of storage capacities. As a result, huge problems have arisen where not only the operation costs increase, but also the systems are frequently suspended due to human errors and the quality of service is often degraded. To solve these programs, it is important to manage configuration information of the IT systems such as information about servers, storages, and applications.
As an apparatus that manages the configuration information of an IT system, an information management apparatus including a database called a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is known. The information management apparatus manages, as the configuration information, constituent elements called Configuration Items (CIs) such as devices, software, and data logs that constitute the IT system, as well as information (hereinafter, “relationship information”) indicating a relationship among the CIs. Further, each of the CIs contains, as attributes (hereinafter, “properties”) related to the CI, detailed information such as the type of the device, an IP address, a vendor name, a model name, and the like.
To operate a data center, pieces of operation management middleware optimized for different management tasks such as a sever management, a network management, a service management, and an asset management are used. Further, each of the pieces of operation management middleware has a unique CMDB and inputs configuration information related to the task thereof into the CMDB. Accordingly, because each of the CMDBs manages the configuration information independently of the other CMDBs, the methods for accessing the CMDBs and the data formats of the configuration information managed by the CMDBs may vary among the different CMDBs. Consequently, the reality is that using the CMDBs in collaboration with one another cannot help but involve human labor.
To cope with this situation, an information management apparatus including a database called Federated Configuration Management Database (FCMDB) that virtually integrates various type of configuration information distributed in a plurality of CMDBs has been developed. The CMDBs virtually integrated by the FCMDB may be referred to as Management Data Repositories (MDRs).
For example, as depicted in FIG. 14, MDRs 800a to 800f are connected to an information management apparatus 700 via a network such as the Internet. The MDR 800a manages information about configurations of the devices and the like that are present in the IT system. The MDR 800b manages incident history information in the IT system. The MDR 800c manages information about troubles that occurred in the IT system. The MDR 800d manages release information about services and the like provided in the IT system. The MDR 800e manages change information about the devices and the like in the IT system. The MDR 800f manages information about applications installed in the devices and the like in the IT system.
At predetermined timing, each of the MDRs 800a to 800f transmits the configuration information managed thereby to the information management apparatus 700. When the information management apparatus 700 has obtained the configuration information from the MDRs 800a to 800f, the information management apparatus 700 manages the obtained configuration information, by integrating the configuration information for each of different targets. In this situation, the information management apparatus 700 has a reconciliation function to arbitrate between the pieces of configuration information managed by the MDRs 800a to 800f. More specifically, the reconciliation function is a function to integrate pieces of configuration information that are related to mutually the same target and are managed in two or more of the MDRs 800a to 800f under mutually different names or mutually different IDs.
For example, let us assume that pieces of configuration information about mutually the same target 900 (e.g., a server apparatus) are managed while being distributed in the MDRs 800a, 800c, 800e, and 800f among the MDRs 800a to 800f. More specifically, as configuration information 850a of mutually the same target 900, the MDR 800a manages properties such as a name “server”, an ID “WebServer1”, an IP address “192.168.10.1”, and the CPU of mutually the same target 900. As configuration information 850b of mutually the same target 900, the MDR 800c manages properties such as the name “server”, an ID “192.168.10.1”, the IP address “192.168.10.1”, and a status of mutually the same target 900.
Further, as configuration information 850c of mutually the same target 900, the MDR 800e manages properties such as a name “host”, an ID “hostnameX”, and the IP address “192.168.10.1” of mutually the same target 900. Also, as configuration information 850d of mutually the same target 900, the MDR 800f manages properties such as a name “node”, the ID “192.168.10.1”, the IP address “192.168.10.1”, and an application of mutually the same target 900. As explained here, the MDRs 800a, 800c, 800e, and 800f manage the pieces of configuration information related to mutually the same target 900 under the mutually different names and the mutually different IDs.
Exercising the reconciliation function, the information management apparatus 700 integrates the pieces of configuration information 850a to 850d together as configuration information related to mutually the same target 900, by performing a collating process on the pieces of configuration information 850a to 850d while using a property that is unique to mutually the same target 900. For example, among the various types of properties contained in the pieces of configuration information 850a to 850d, the information management apparatus 700 performs the collating process by using the IP address, which is a property unique to mutually the same target 900. In other words, from among the pieces of configuration information obtained from the MDRs 800a to 800f, the information management apparatus 700 identifies the pieces of configuration information 850a, 850b, 850c, and 850d each of which contains mutually the same IP address “192.168.10.1” as a property. Further, the information management apparatus 700 integrates the pieces of configuration information 850a, 850b, 850c, and 850d together as configuration information related to mutually the same target 900 to which the IP address “192.168.10.1” is assigned.
As explained above, the information management apparatus 700 integrates and manages the pieces of configuration information 850a to 850d that are related to mutually the same target 900 and are managed while being distributed in the plurality of MDRs 800a to 800f. As a result, by referring to the configuration information virtually integrated by the information management apparatus 700, an operator such as a system administrator is able to easily understand the configuration of the entire IT system, in many different situations of the system operation such as a patch application task, a hardware maintenance task, and the like. Hereinafter, integrating a piece of configuration information with another piece of configuration information related to the same target 900 as the piece of configuration information is related to may be referred to as a reconciliation process.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-18607.
It is, however, difficult for the conventional information management apparatus to perform the reconciliation process on the pieces of configuration information when, although the pieces of configuration are related to mutually the same target, the pieces of configuration information contain no collation-purpose property, i.e., when the pieces of configuration information do not contain, in common, a property unique to one target. For example, let us assume that, as depicted in FIG. 15, pieces of configuration information related to mutually the same target 900 are managed while being distributed in MDRs 800g to 800i. More specifically, the MDR 800g manages, as configuration information 850g of mutually the same target 900, properties such as the name “server”, the IP address “192.168.10.1”, and the CPU of mutually the same target 900. Further, the MDR 800h manages, as configuration information 850h of mutually the same target 900, properties such as the name “server”, the IP address “192.168.10.1”, and the load of mutually the same target 900. Also, the MDR 800i manages, as configuration information 850i of mutually the same target 900, properties such as a name “asset” and an asset register number “ABC1234” of mutually the same target 900.
In this situation, the information management apparatus 700 reconciles the configuration information 850g and the configuration information 850h as configuration information related to mutually the same target 900, by using the IP address “192.168.10.1”, which is a property unique to mutually the same target, as a collation-purpose property. The configuration information 850i, however, does not contain the “IP address”, although the configuration information 850i contains the “asset register number” as a property unique to mutually the same target 900. Accordingly, the information management apparatus 700 is not able to reconcile the configuration information 850i with the configuration information 850g or with the configuration information 850h. Similarly, when using the asset register number “ABC1234” as a collation-purpose property, the information management apparatus 700 is not able to reconcile the configuration information 850i with the configuration information 850g or with the configuration information 850h. 
In this situation, for example, it has been known to use a reconciliation condition that causes the operator to manually perform a reconciliation process by displaying a plurality of pieces of configuration information that do not contain, in common, a collation-purpose property on a display monitor for the operator and prompting the operator to judge whether these pieces of configuration information are related to mutually the same target. Such a reconciliation condition, however, is not practical because a large burden is laid on the operator, and also, a certain level of skill is required to perform the reconciliation process.